Monday, January 25, 2016

CMPC: Forestal Mininco

CMPCis an integrated organization composed of four components: forest, paper, tissue, and pulp
products. And integrated company means that they own all of the links of the process to produce a product, in this case various wood products.

CMPC has forest lands and factories throughout Central and South America that sell to
markets across the world. Forestal Mininco is the forest management division within CMPC. The
500,000 hectares of forest plantations in Chile are composed mostly of radiata pine and eucalyptus to
produce a multitude of products ranging from pulp and paper to sawlogs and plywood. The
regions are separated in to patrimonios and into smaller areas called fundos which are composed
of stands or rodales. Annually Forestal Mininco produces 5 million cubic meters of wood products
and plants over 20 million trees in radiata pine trees alone!

The focus of my work with Forestal Mininco includes improving the recuperation of value in the silviculture and operations systems of radiata pine.
Radiata pine can produce many more economically valuable products such as plywood, sawlogs, and plywood. Do you know what a peeler log is? Check out this link! This video shows part of the process of making plywood.

La cosecha y el manejo en general - Harvest and Management PracticesIntense management of radiata pine plantations in southern Chile produces quality sawlog and
peeler products. In general the pine trees are planted on prepared soil with added nutrients and
treated once initially with herbicides to control competing vegetation. Pruning occurs up to three times beginning as early as four years after planting. Thinning the initial density of
approximately 1.200 trees per hectare occurs up to two times before final harvest with a final
density around 400-500 trees per hectare after about 24 years of growth. The stand silvicultural
treatments depend on the soil type, growing conditions, and water availability.

The practices are highly analyzed and tested in order to incorporate the highest producing
management schemes by the research and development teams. Variation in density, thinning
schedules, and pruning grades produce different outcomes depending on the desired outcome.
The objective of the current projects surrounds high grade peeler logs of radiata pine.